The Cross in Early Christian Worship

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Can anyone point me to any historical sources (websites with sources would be very helpful) that show that Christians used the sign of the cross in worship before the year 300 AD.

Thank you.
 
From the Catholic Encylopedia: ‘Of all the above methods of venerating this life-giving symbol and adopting it as an emblem, the marking of a little cross seems to be the most ancient. We have positive evidence in the early Fathers that such a practice was familiar to Christians in the second century. “In all our travels and movements”, says Tertullian (De cor. Mil., iii), “in all our coming in and going out, in putting of our shoes, at the bath, at the table, in lighting our candles, in lying down, in sitting down, whatever employment occupieth us, we mark our foreheads with the sign of the cross”. On the other hand this must soon have passed into a gesture of benediction, as many quotations from the Fathers in the fourth century would show. Thus St. Cyril of Jerusalem in his “Catecheses” (xiii, 36) remarks: “let us then not be ashamed to confess the Crucified. Be the cross our seal, made with boldness by our fingers on our brow and in every thing; over the bread we eat and the cups we drink, in our comings and in goings; before our sleep, when we lie down and when we awake; when we are travelling, and when we are at rest”.’
newadvent.org/cathen/13785a.htm
 
The tau they talk about in that link is Greek and Egyptian. There is no Hebrew tau. The letter in Hebrew that sounds like the English ‘t’ looks more like an m or n than a t.
 
Rawb said:
The tau they talk about in that link is Greek and Egyptian. There is no Hebrew tau. The letter in Hebrew that sounds like the English ‘t’ looks more like an m or n than a t.
Click to expand...
In modern Hebrew script, yes, but in Paleo-Hebrew, the script used by the Israelites before the Exile, it was:

http://www.ancientscripts.com/images/old_hebrew.gif

It was similar to Phoenician, of whom Paleo-Hebrew is a descendant (Phoenician is also the Ancestor of present-day Greek, Latin, Hebrew and Arabic scripts):
http://www.ancientscripts.com/images/phoenician.gif

During the exile to Babylon, the Hebrews started to use the Aramaic language and script, using Paleo-Hebrew mostly in religious writing (For example, in some copies of Scripture, The Tetragrammaton was written in Paleo-Hebrew.
Take for example, this copy of the Septuagint:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Lxxminorprophets.gif
And here (Note that the script used on this one now mostly resembles modern Hebrew script)
http://members.nuvox.net/~on.roz/God/images/yhwh-paleo-deadsea.gif

and in coins as a symbol of nationalism, like this one:
http://www.rosenblumcoins.com/files/img/35c/GF60.JPG

The Old Hebrew alphabet ceased to be used at all by the 1st century AD.
(The Samaritan script is a descendant of Paleo-Hebrew)
 
thau is another spelling of it. thau, tau, taw

flip a coin 😉
 
??? The book I’m learning Hebrew from uses an alphabet drastically different from the one you’ve posted, and it’s supposed to be Biblical Hebrew. Maybe it’s teaching me the alphabet from Jesus’ time? You say this alphabet died out around 1st Century AD - how early? If it was very early in the century (like around the time Jesus was born) then maybe I’m learning the Hebrew Jesus would’ve known? 🤷
 
Rawb said:
??? The book I’m learning Hebrew from uses an alphabet drastically different from the one you’ve posted, and it’s supposed to be Biblical Hebrew. Maybe it’s teaching me the alphabet from Jesus’ time? You say this alphabet died out around 1st Century AD - how early? If it was very early in the century (like around the time Jesus was born) then maybe I’m learning the Hebrew Jesus would’ve known? 🤷
Click to expand...
Correct. Just as I said, After the Babylonian Exile, Paleo-Hebrew’s use decreased. Those who remained to work in the fields still used Paleo-Hebrew (naturally).

The Israelites during the Exile used the Aramaic Script to write Hebrew (Which itself is also a descendant of Phoenician).

Around the 3rd Century B.C., The script that the Israelites use in writing evolved and now mostly resembles the square script Hebrew is written.

Paleo-Hebrew’s use after the 5th Century B.C. was eventually preserved by a coterie of scribes who wrote the Tanakh in that script while the Aramaic language and script became an official means of communication, basically the Lingua Franca of the Middle East. (Which perhaps explains the Script on that book you’re using)

It was still used in coinage such as the majority of Hasmonean Currency, even as late as coins from the Jewish-Roman War and Bar Kochba’s revolt (as a sign of Nationalism). Paleo-Hebrew completely fell out of use after 135 A.D. (I should’ve said it died out around the 1st and 2nd Century 😛 Sorry for the mistake)
 
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